Written questions by Hayes.

How many full time equivalent civil servants are employed to work on the asylum backlog.

The requested staffing data is published online: Immigration and protection data: Q3 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

What assessment she has made of the potential (a) merits and (b) risks of registering births and deaths online.

The General Register Office is considering the options to provide the public with more choice in how they register births and deaths in the future, whether face-to-face, over the telephone or online.Any provision of online services will be subject to established Government Security Standards.

How many serving police officers had their vetting clearance withdrawn in each of the last five years.

This data is not held by the Home Office. The administration of police vetting, including the granting and withdrawal of clearances, is managed at a local level by forces.As announced by the Home Secretary in October, the Government will be bringing forward regulations on police vetting for the first time which will introduce a statutory duty for officers to hold and maintain vetting clearance and provide a bespoke route to dismiss officers who are unable to do so.

If she will make an estimate of the number of people working illegally in the gig economy in England and Wales.

The Home Office does not hold the requested data. Recent joint work between the Office for National Statistics and the Home Office explains the complexities of measuring numbers in this area. Measuring illegal migration: our current view - Office for National Statistics.

If she will publish a list of occupations of people arrested for working illegally in the UK.

The Home Office does not hold a comprehensive list of the occupations for which individuals have been arrested for illegal working but the focus of recent enforcement work has included car washes, nail bars, construction sites ad takeaway restaurants.

How many (a) hotels and (b) other properties are being used to accommodate asylum seekers in Lincolnshire.

Data, published quarterly, on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation, including hotels, can be found within the Asy_D11 tab for our most recent statistics release. The data can also be broken down by local authority: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).

If she will publish an anonymised list of Non Crime Hate Incidents investigated by police forces in England and Wales.

The Home Office does not currently centrally collate information on non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) recorded or investigated by individual police forces – this data is held by individual forces.The Home Secretary has been clear that a consistent and common-sense approach must be taken with NCHIs. The Government has also been clear that its top priority for policing is delivering on the safer streets mission to rebuild neighbourhood policing, restoring public confidence, and making progress on the ambition to halve knife crime and violence against women and girls.The Home Office has agreed that the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), supported by the College of Policing, will conduct a review on the use and effectiveness of NCHIs, including looking at force-level data.

How many inflatable boats used to smuggle people across the English Channel were seized in (a) 2022, (b) 2023 and (c) 2024.

The information requested is set out in the below table: Boats2022142120235152024751

How many people arriving on small boats seeking asylum underwent scientific age checks in 2024.

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the Answer I gave to the Shadow Home Secretary on 2 January 2025 to Question UIN 18967.

How many people have been (a) charged and (b) convicted for offences relating to supplying small boat parts to gangs involved in smuggling people across the English channel in (i) 2022, (ii) 2023 and (iii) 2024.

As the Rt Hon Member will be aware, the recently introduced Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill proposes a new offence relating to the supply of articles for use in Organised Immigration Crime, through which we will seek to clamp down on the activities to which his question refers. In respect of charges and convictions in pervious years where these activities were a factor, this data is not held centrally.

How much money was seized from gangs involved in smuggling people across the English Channel in (a) 2022, (b) 2023 and (c) 2024.

Seized/Frozen2022/23£7,543,7462023/24£2,616,5092024/25£13,376,869 Seized and frozen assets relating to Organised Immigration Crime, Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery for the financial years requested is available. These would include much of the seized assets in relation to people smuggling across the Channel.

For what purposes the National Crime Agency has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.

The NCA is working on a number of productivity improvements using AI.Examples include piloting automation for case management of investigations and automating back-end processes in the areas of Human Resources and Finance.

How many people entered the UK through irregular means other than small boats in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024.

The Home Office publishes statistics on the number of detected irregular arrivals to the UK across four routes of entry in the ‘Immigration System Statistics quarterly release’.Data on inadequately documented air arrivals, recorded detections at UK ports and recorded detections in the UK, alongside small boat arrivals and can be found in Irr_01 of the ‘Irregular migration summary tables’. This data covers the period 2018 to September 2024.Data covering the period of October to December 2024 is due to be published on 27th February 2025.Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

How many people entered the UK on a visa and overstayed in each of the last three years.

The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas in the ‘Immigration System Statistics quarterly release’.The specific data requested is not routinely published and could only be collated and verified for the purposes of answering this question at a disproportionate cost.

Whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of fraudulent visa applications made in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024.

There are a wide range of circumstances which can lead to a visa application being classed as fraudulent, including the use of false documentation, or lying about the purpose of a visit, employment status or financial situation.Data on the total number of fraudulent visa applications is not readily available in accessible form and could only be collated and verified for the purpose of this question at a disproportionate cost.

What steps she is taking to increase recruitment of firefighters in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) other rural areas.

While the Government is committed to ensuring fire and rescue services have the resources they need to do their important work, is it individual fire and rescue authorities that are responsible for recruitment and decisions around deployment of resources.Overall, fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.87 billion in 2024/25. Standalone Fire and Rescue Authorities will see an increase in core spending power of £53.3m in 2025/26; this is an increase of 3 per cent in cash terms compared to 2024/25.

How many instances of mobile phone theft have been reported in Lincolnshire since 2020.

The Home Office collects information on the number of theft offences recorded by the police in England and Wales. It is not currently possible to identify from these data which crimes involved the theft of a mobile phone. The Office for National Statistics publish estimates of mobile phone theft for England and Wales, but these figures are not available for smaller geographic areas. The latest Office for National Statistics estimates can be found at:https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/focusonpropertycrimeappendixtablesWe will shortly be holding a Home Office Mobile Phone Theft Summit, drawing together representatives from the mobile phone industry, including tech companies, and law enforcement to see what more can collectively be done to break the business model of mobile phone thieves.As part of our Safer Streets Mission, this government is determined to crack down on theft and other crimes that make people feel unsafe in our communities, including strengthening neighbourhood policing, tackling anti-social behaviour and restoring public confidence.

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

AI is being used for a range of purposes in the HO, including:to improve business delivery as part of overall digital improvements in the department with well-established systems such as e-Gates, to allow entry at the Border; in our passport service, to support online applications; triage tools, which route cases to the appropriate teams; and the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) Classifier, which helps police officers grade child sexual abuse material (CSAM) more swiftly and reduces their exposure time to harmful contentto assist the creation of documents and presentationsto research publicly available documentsto transcribe meetingsto summarise informationWe are also running several AI trials to test their potential for wider productivity and quality improvements in existing business processes.

How many (a) new and (b) replacement passports were issued in 2024.

In 2024, the number of passports issued to customers applying for their first British passport was 1,277,216.A further 6,442,605 British passports were issued in 2024. This figure includes renewals, and the replacement of passports that were lost, stolen or damaged.

When Ministers in her Department held meetings on grooming gangs in the last five years; and who the external attendees at those meetings were.

It is not for this Government to comment on meetings held by previous Government ministers, but I would refer the Rt Hon Member to the quarterly publications of transparency data on ministerial meetings available on the Home Office website.Since coming to office in July, current Home Office Ministers have been prioritising engagement with victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation, child protection organisations, law enforcement partners, members of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, and colleagues across Government to further strengthen the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation.Whilst not always published as some are internal meetings, I can assure the Rt Hon Member that I have taken meetings every single week on this subject since my appointment as a Minister. I have also convened the first dedicated cross-Government group to drive forward change in this crucial area.